What's up with all these slavic post-apoc RPGs nowadays? Not that I'm complaining, it's great. Just wondering about their recent appearance on the anglosphere of teh internets.
Anyways, tried the demo. Did stuff in Otradnoye, had a random encounter with three paranoid guys, explored the bunker, went to the abandoned factory and ran around the world map a bit. Didn't find any other accessible locations. I guess that's it for the demo.
Some random bits of critique and whatnot:
- Much of the content in the demo seems hastily thrown together. Most items are just copy-pasted vendor trash weighing the same 0.45kg, worth the same 3 RU. Combat animations and sounds are pretty basic. NPC models and portraits rarely match. Et cetera. I assume nothing is final at this point and all current content will be iteratively improved?
- The cooking system is awkward. No point carrying food if the only chance to eat is at those cooking nodes.
- Ditto for fishing. And apparently fish seems to be worth more than anything else in this world, easy way to jew shops and caravans.
- I still have no idea how to use active skills except when they are used through dialog. Not in demo?
- Couldn't find a way to view your perks. Not in demo?
- There were a few bugs where location markers weren't added to your map, but I guess that's also a demo thing.
- Lots of small assets stolen from other games, particularly from Fallout. I assume they're placeholders and hope you don't get into trouble over that. All the more reason to improve your current content.
- The english translation wasn't too bad. There were few instances of bad grammar and typos, but nothing too glaring. The only jarring thing I encountered was a partially untranslated book or two.
All in all, "Wasteland (2) Soviet Style" is pretty much the perfect description. Very similar overall feel; same cheap unity look, same flimsy and buggy unity UI, same disparity between character portraits and 3D models, all the same little quirks holding a nice post-apocalyptic package together. This project has promise, I hope it goes forward.
Nobody knows why, but making our own JA2, Fallout and sometimes a strange fantasy game that doesn't work properly is a passion shared by all slavs. Probably the only thing that truly binds us, despite our cultural and political differences. As a historic linguist of Slavic languages, I have a few origin theories: those games look like american B-movies the late 80's / early 90's generation grew up on. Those games were the hottest thing ever, when most people in Russia, Ukraine and Poland started getting enough moneys to buy PCs so here we have an imprinting of sorts. Also, JA2 and Fallout settings remind most of us of real life in the 90's. In another theory, many Slavs historically and culturally respect masculinity, manly toughness, ability to survive. Post-apocalyptic settings are very masculine by nature, they are brutal and tough like Arnie! Steampunk and most Fantasy settings, on the other hand, are gay, and that is why games like Arcanum, Baldur's Gate, etc, while loved by many, do not get this kind of following, much like the петушки, or traditional Russian prison homosexuals, who are sometimes protected, cared for and adorned with gifts, but still get dehumanized at the same time. Also it may be because there are cool guns in those games, and you have the ability to kill with gory results. But this is just a theory. A GAME THEORY.....
And now, to the points! Most of the problems you noted, while really embarrassing, thankfully, will become moot this Friday, with an update we are working right now. Can't say that everything will be fixed in this one go, but most dialogue troubles, maybe some economy troubles, and all of the sound issues will be fixed. I mean our current sounds ARE pretty sweet, but we finally found a person, who will provide something more... original! Same goes for those deja vu inducing icons and other details like that. The model thing is a huge flaw, believe us, we know! The slowness, the lack of movement variety, the works. While we have modelers, we don't really have an animator yet. We will though, so you better believe nothing you see now animation and model -wise will even get into the pre-release version. This temporary lack of a guy is also part of the reason why the game looks like something that was hastily put together. The other reason is the demo thing. We wanted to make rough sketches of locations to come. Now we are filling them with details, slowly.
Still, we're really psyched right now. Seeing how well the people such as you tend to take our product despite many flaws, makes us work longer and harder, penetrating every issue, rubbing out each mistake; makes us want to finish the product even more than before. Next upd should be much better, and we won't stop there! :D
Thanks a bunch!
Ah man these Fallout sounds on turn end - combat end... They never get old.
I don't know if it's legal to even try to greenlight a game with so many assets directly taken from other games though. On the other hand why should I care?
In a place, where RPG Maker games with tiles ripped from Final Fantasy get greenlit, there's neither God nor Law! But still, we are currently changing each placeholder sound and asset for a unique one. Friday, hopefully, will make our game's title the only questionable thing about it.
Unless you butcher it, of course.
That actually keeps me up at night sometimes... :D But I think we'll manage. How hard can it be.......
Just pray Bethesda doesn't get wind of this (using Fallout assets, of which they own).
Hey, they wouldn't bully a small time indie studio into submission! W... Would they? :O
